HEBRON — Like any good business manager, Darryl F. Collins is out to please his customers. It's just that his clientele is a little different from most. As the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport's new air traffic manager, Mr. Collins is charged with overseeing the operation that manages about 2,000 takeoffs and landings every day.

        “I understand that when an airline puts a hub down in a city, it's a huge investment for not only them, but that a lot is at stake for the entire community,” says Mr. Collins, who took over as the Federal Aviation Administration's top local air traffic official about three weeks ago. “Our job is to move people and products safely from point A to point B, but if we don't do that efficiently, the system breaks down and those airlines either shut down or leave.

        “We now realize that the airlines are not just users of the system, but they're customers.”< p> Managing the hub

        Mr. Collins will now supervise the 82 controllers who handle local air traffic at the airport. He takes over for former air traffic manager H. Michael Brown, who is taking the same job at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

        And he says that Cincinnati has always been a “goal destination” for him, mainly because of the facility's reputation as a well-run organization, but also because of his previous experience.

        He has worked as both a controller and manager at the Nashville and Memphis airports, both of which are or have been hubs for major airlines. Nashville was an American Airlines hub during Mr. Collins' tenure, and he saw what happened after that carrier pulled up stakes from Tennessee.

        Memphis is also a hub for Northwest Airlines, and the major hub for Federal Express — a very similar setup to Cincinnati (this facility is Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines' second-largest hub and DHL Worldwide Express' lone U.S. hub).

        “A hub is a hub, and no offense to the local folks, an airline is an airline in the way we look at it,” Mr. Collins says. “But hubs have their own unique challenges and scheduling issues, and I'm well prepared to handle that.”

        Mr. Collins would not disclose his current salary, but air traffic managers at similar-sized facilities make between $112,000 and $140,000 annually.

        As the former No. 2 man in Orlando, the former Army air traffic controller also has intimate knowledge of Comair, which operates a hub in the central Florida city, and operates the most flights locally.

A preceding reputation

        Comair manager of system operations support Mark Berner says that Mr. Collins individually and the Orlando air traffic operation have strong reputations.

        “The people we have that have worked with him have said they consider him a responsive and effective manager,” Mr. Berner says. “And he's worked with the same runway configuration we're going to have (after a new runway is built here in 2005), and that will also bode well for the airlines and their customers here in Cincinnati.”

        Yet even if he says he is prepared for the new position, Mr. Collins says he realizes that air delays will probably re-emerge as major air travel issues as traffic slowly recovers from Sept. 11.

        “That's why we have changed our approach to work with the airlines more as customers and seek out common goals, and to be prepared for the future,” Mr. Collins says. "Without them, we don't exist, and without us, they can't stay in business.”

        He says that despite several moves in the last 10 years, he intends to stay in Cincinnati for a while. That could put him in the middle of some major FAA air traffic control issues both locally and nationally.

Early controversy

        The FAA will be installing its new Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System at 190 civilian control centers and another 170 military towers in the next six years at a cost of $1.4 billion. Initial reports have been mixed, with some air traffic controllers and even the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, issuing critical reports.

        The 4-year-old Cincinnati tower is scheduled to get the new system in fiscal year 2004 at an anticipated cost of $1.3 million.

        “We'll be in the middle of the waterfall, so hopefully, any of the glitches that come with installing any new system will have been worked out,” Mr. Collins says.

        The FAA is also facing a possible manpower shortage: About half of its approximately 15,000 controllers become eligible for retirement in the next five years. Mr. Collins, who was initially hired as a replacement controller during the 1981 strike, says that his previous experience as a controller helps him understand the pressures of the position, “and my job is to support these guys and give them what they need.”

        And construction has already begun on a new runway and an extension of another runway at the Cincinnati airport. The $236 million project is due to be completed in 2005.

        "I've spent my entire career gaining the experience that would make me well-rounded for a position like this,” Mr. Collins says. "This is a great facility, but it's the people who make it great. And that's my challenge — to keep that going.”

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